Bad Taste [1987]

This movie is a testament to what dedication and perseverance can bring you in the long term. Bad Taste is an ultra-low budget movie, without a real crew or fancy equipment. It was also the directorial debut of now world-famous director Peter Jackson. Along with his friends, who were also fans of gore and splatter movies, he decided to make a movie about aliens eating humans. However, the main thing about this movie are the delightfully gory and bloody practical effects. The shooting started back in 1983, so just try to imagine what a young and anonymous director like Peter could actually pull off living in New Zealand. Then, you really start to appreciate the effort put into this movie. So, this is a splatter movie, meaning that it combines gruesome and often disgusting scenes with humor. Like that wasn’t enough, almost everything here is over-the-top. Acting, story and special effects are all so ridiculously pumped up that you will keep smiling for no reason throughout this movie.

The entire population of the small town of Kaihoro simply disappeared over night. Enter AIDS or Astro Investigation and Defense Service, that decides to investigate this case. They send their best men only to find the town overrun with aliens. They have sinister plans involving planet Earth and it’s up to AIDS to prevent them.

Working with no money and no professionals (not to mention no Azamath), Peter Jackson created a truly wonderful movie. The techniques he used to cover up the lack of money were quite innovative and entertaining. Of course, the overwhelming presence of hacking, slashing and other kinds of eviscerations may cloud your judgement, but you can make this already interesting movie even more interesting by closely examining scenes. Notice the camera angles, lighting and camera movement throughout the movie and you will see the beginnings of an amazing career. Unfortunately, Peter filmed just one more movie that’s similar to this one: Braindead. I keep hoping that now that he’s successful he will revisit this genre and redefine it.

Fun Facts: Director Peter Jackson shot the film on weekends over a four-year period with friends playing the lead roles. Jackson funded most of the film himself until towards the end of the shoot when the New Zealand Film Commission gave him money to finish his project after being impressed with what he’d already produced. There was never a script for the movie; each scene was filmed from ideas the director had come up with during the week